Sexual Health

Sexually transmitted infections are one part of sexual health, but that’s not all! Any aspect of health or healthcare that is related to sex and reproduction is about sexual health: menstruation, common infections like yeast or bacterial infections, birth control and abortion, health conditions like endometriosis, PCOS or phimosis, vaccinations, pain with sex, safer sex and other preventative sexual health practices and yep, STIs, too.

a couple o' peaches

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Articles and Advice in this area:

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Most topical antibiotics state on the label that they aren’t to be used on mucous membranes, alas. But you can certainly check the label on any topical antibiotics you have around the house to see. So, with a genital injury – I’m assuming you mean you have an injury around your vaginal opening? –…

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Ideally, after something like this, you’d want to flush your eye out with a lot of water, as an immediate measure. But more ideally, you don’t want to get semen in your eyes. That absolutely poses a risk of infection – as well as hurting like nobody’s business – including sexually transmitted…

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

There is no data to support that caffeine reduces the effectiveness of birth control pills or other hormonal birth control. However, since the pill can cause breast tenderness, and caffeine can make that worse, if you’re having any issues with that, you may want to cut back on the java some. Too…

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Lucky for you, the solution to this is really easy. You’re right: using a latex condom when you know you have an allergy would be a Very Bad Idea. And as well, lambskin condoms don’t protect against STIs (not to mention that lambskin = eew). STI protection is really important, and ideally, you want…

Advice
  • Susie Tang

Hi there, metronidazole (Flagyl) is the most common treatment for bacterial vaginosis (BV). While many people who contract BV don’t show symptoms, when they do, the discharge that usually occurs is milky-greyish and fishy-smelling. that doesn’t really fit with the description you gave. However it is…

Article
  • Heather Corinna
  • Finn Black

What do you really know about HIV and AIDS? How sure are you that what you know is correct or complete, and how much do you think it matters that you know about HIV and AIDS at all?

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Sarah, Sometimes, some folks just have REALLY sensitive noses, and will be convinced their genitals smell awful when they smell completely normal. That might be the case here with you. Too, if that profuse discharge is only happening for a few days once each menstrual cycle, that may simply be the…

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

One thing to understand about hormonal birth control is that it’s sometimes NOT advised for people dealing with depression, because the particular hormones in birth control can make some kinds of depression worse for some people. Sometimes they may have no impact on depression at all, but it’s…

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

In truth, it takes a more than one sperm to fertilize an egg. Only the one does the fertilizing, but that one sperm needs a couple hundred “helper” sperm to do the job. That isn’t to say pre-ejaculate cannot cause pregnancy. From all we know practically and scientifically, on some occasions when pre…

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

I’m afraid you’re not going to like my answer very much. Really? You don’t want to be having intercourse – or even outercourse, if it isn’t comfortable and protected – when you’re not fully over a yeast infection (as your treatment will mention in the instructions). For starters, yeast infections…